Dunsmore: Style Over Substance

(Host)
Most of the media pundits have declared Republican presidential
candidate Governor Mitt Romney the victor in his first debate with
president Barack Obama. Commentator Barrie Dunsmore was an analyst for
ABC News during several presidential debates and this morning he grades
the news media.

(Dunsmore) I knew the president was in trouble
when virtually all of the liberal commentators on MSNBC made no attempt
to hide their disappointment. With the polls looking good for the
president and Governor Romney seemingly on the ropes after the
revelations that he thought the 47 percent of Americans who paid no
federal income taxes were a bunch of slackers, the MSNBC pundits were
looking forward to a clean kill. Instead commentators across the
ideological spectrum were finding it hard to curb their enthusiasm for
Romney's "energetic" and "aggressive" attacks on Mr. Obama's policies.

My
own view is that once again style was given far more attention than
substance. Had I been critiquing the debate in real time I would have
certainly noted that Obama was passive, that he was willing to let
Romney make many charges without rebuttal. For instance Romney accused
Obama of being unwilling to work with Republicans in the U.S. Congress.
Romney claimed that as governor of Massachusetts he had been able to
work with a heavily Democratic legislature to get things like his
signature health care plan enacted. That cried out for Obama to respond,
perhaps by reminding Romney that the Massachusetts legislature had not
publicly stated that its top priority was to make Romney a one term
governor - as Republican Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell had
remarkably confessed was his party's goal with regard to President
Obama. But the president just let that moment pass, along with others
when he might have challenged the veracity of assertions Romney was
making.

On matters of substance, Romney repeatedly denied that
he was calling for a $5 trillion tax cut, much of which would go to the
top 1 percent of Americans. In fact, Romney has a plan which has been
out there for many months, which calls for cutting income tax rates by
20 percent.

By all credible economic analysis this would deprive the
government of $5 trillion over ten years. But Romney argued his plan was
"revenue neutral," - that any deficit would be made up by tax reform.
Yet, at the same time he repeatedly refused to list any of the details
of tax deductions his plan would disallow - which may well need to
include mortgage interest and state taxes in order to make up such vast
sums.

However Romney's continued refusal to give any details of
his tax plan got little media attention. Various "fact checkers" on
television and especially in print did mention the discrepancies in
Romney's income tax reform numbers. But not all Americans have access to
fact checkers. Debate moderator Jim Lehrer of PBS, whom I know and
like, certainly didn't act as fact checker in what was generally not a
notable performance on his part.

There are two more presidential
debates in which the media will again elevate style above substance.
And if President Obama refuses to heed that message he does so at great
political peril.